On 25/07/2006, at 12:25 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
HeLa cells came from a tumor of Helen Lane.
"Helen Lane" was a pseudonym used to protect the patient's identity.
Her real name was Henrietta Lacks.
They are unquestionably human
cells. They have a mutation that allows them to continue to divide
and propagate
(that is what cancer cells do after all just not as successfully
as these
cells.
More importantly, they are an immortal cell line, which means they do
not suffer the telomere shortening that is a feature of mature mammal
cell lines, and therefore can divide indefinitely.
They do not represent a new species of anything. They are clump of
human
cells that is it.
There is an argument that as they are independent and an immortal
cell line, that they could be considered an example of a speciation
event, but all that means is that we've chosen to call them something
for convenience and to distinguish them from other clumps of human
cells. They are indeed human cells. Very interesting ones, but
indisputably human.
Charlie
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